


Absolute Zero

by neuronary



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Number Five | The Boy, Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Number Five | The Boy Whump, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:14:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26732686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neuronary/pseuds/neuronary
Summary: In which Number Five can freeze time and it's not nearly as fun as it sounds.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 224





	Absolute Zero

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aloneintherain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aloneintherain/gifts).



> i don't understand shit about physics but i'm pretty sure if time was no longer acting on an object/person they would start to lose heat really fast and eventually approach absolute zero. and disintegrate. that doesn't happen to five but he Does find out that it could :)

Five hadn’t meant to the first time and he’d actively been trying not to the second and that scared him almost as much as Seven’s frozen, untouchable face had.

_You will replicate your results, Number Five._

He’d just wanted Dad to shut up and stop saying the exact same thing over and over like that would make him do it when he didn’t want to and he hadn’t even bothered threatening Seven’s violin yet. Then he had shut up and Five had opened his eyes to see everything too-still-frozen-bad-wrong again and he couldn’t get it to unstick.

_Frick_.

\---

The good thing about sticking time was that Dad couldn’t yell at him for having one of his Moments because Dad didn’t even know he was having one.

The bad thing about sticking time was that he always had one of his Moments.

Five hunched over his knees and concentrated on not throwing up. It was fine. He could unstick it. Probably.

Maybe.

Definitely he could unstick it if he ate something. Almost certainly. He’d just jumped too much and Dad wouldn’t let him have a protein bar until he’d stuck and unstuck three times so he needed enough energy to stop him being dizzy and weird and not-quite-breathing-right. Other than that it was _fine_.

He passed Vanya on the way to the kitchen and almost had another Moment.

He remembered to keep his eyes front on the way back.

\---

Five shivered and tucked his fingers into his blazer. He needed to unstick and _fast._ He was losing heat by the minute and he didn’t want to know what happened when he got too cold to move.

He was nearing too cold to move now and he didn’t know what to do about it but he needed to figure it out because he’d tried to unstick four times already.

“Fifth time’s the charm,” he muttered to himself, teeth chattering, as he pulled his hands back into stiff, painful fists and _tugged_ \--

Nothing.

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit _shit_.

He needed to get heat back into his unstuck bubble but he didn’t know how or where and this whole damn house was always freezing cold anyway except--

Except when Mom was baking. The oven could work.

Five tucked his arms closer and took a tiny, shuddering step towards the kitchen.

\---

Five pulled at time, sticking and unsticking again and again because they only ever looked like that when they were stuck and they _had to be stuck_.

His siblings' bodies stayed as still as they had been seconds-minutes-hours ago when he’d found them.

Five hunched over his knees and concentrated on not crying.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! (or didn't, i guess, given the genre.) thanks to [captainkirkk](https://captainkirkk.tumblr.com/)/[aloneintherain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aloneintherain/pseuds/aloneintherain) for the idea! this was originally posted on my tumblr, which you can [check out here](https://neuronary.tumblr.com/) if you would like.


End file.
